There are times heroic performances spring out of nowhere, from people you never expected to provide them.
By BRYAN GALLEYS
Special to The Pioneer
What is heroic?
In the world of sports, is it preforming at new heights that others have failed to reach? It can be.
But it can also be so much more.
There are times heroic performances spring out of nowhere, from people you never expected to provide them. Sometimes the heroes aren’t who we thought they would be, but they’re who we need them to be.
Emily Archer of Bowman County High School is heroic.
It may not say that in the newspaper’s track results. It may not say that in the record books. But to some, she was a hero.
Archer competed in the 3,200-meter run at the Dickinson Town Crier Invitational track and field meet at Dickinson State University’s Biesiot Activities Center. This was the first time she competed in the event. She came in last in the race, nearly five minutes behind Jenae Orluck of Beach, who blistered the track with a time of 12 minutes, 59.59 seconds.
Archer was lapped by the entire field during the race. Orluck, in fact, lapped her twice. Archer, though, never quit. She could have. And some even wanted her to quit. But quitting is not her style.
“I just wanted to finish,” Archer said, moments after nearly collapsing at the finish line nearly 18 minutes after she started the race.
When Archer stepped to the starting line, the other competitors towered over her. She looked like a tentative fawn making the first venture on her own. She was the ultimate in longshots, and she knew it.
And when the starter blasted his pistol to start the race, the fawn broke with the rest of the pack. Her first steps were delicate, almost a shuffle. In a matter of seconds, the others – particularly Orluck and Killdeer’s Danielle Benz – used long powerful strides to break away from the young freshman.
Although she entered the race with teammates Abigail Bartholomay and Lacey Feist, Archer was almost immediately running on her by herself, well behind the others.
With the sun pounding down on her and the temperature in the 80s, Archer’s drive was simply to survive. Her strides were small and slow. And they would have to carry her around the track eight times.
She kept plugging away, though, and with each step, Archer was a vision of courage.
Just before the mile mark, Orluck sped past her. Benz followed shortly after and soon after that, Archer’s teammates did the same.
But Archer forced herself to stay focused, one step at a time. Her legs were rubbery and steps getting heavier by the minute. Her lungs burned as she struggled for every breath. Sweat poured off her forehead and fell onto the track line rain drops.
She still had four long laps to go.
For most of the race, she ran in relatively obscurity. The attention in the stands was on the frontrunners, and they cheered for Orluck’s winning result and Benz’s game effort to place second, and for Archer’s teammates as they crossed the finish line.
But after Orluck passed Archer a second time, the attention turned to Archer’s torture and her courage. Would she make it? Many didn’t think so. But with each step, they cheered louder, urging Archer – almost pleading – to keep going.
Meet organizers called for the boys 3,200-meter run, saying “be ready because we’re going to go as soon as this last runner is in.”
At that time, Archer still had one more grueling lap.
And as she approached the starting line, you could see the look of distress when she realized she had 400 more meters to go.
“You mean I have still have another lap?” she said, slowing down and dropping her head for a second.
At that point, somebody said in the crowd, “She should just quit. She’s holding everything up.”
Archer admitted she was close to a breaking point. She was exhausted physically, as her wobbly legs threatened to betray her. It appeared as if she was running on a track of heavy mud.
And mentally, she was spent. The thought of quitting did actually pop into her mind with about 200 meters to go.
“It was really hard. I did think about stopping,” she said, while a teammate helped to maintain her balance after the race. “But I lifted my head and heard them cheering for me.”
She reached the final curve and picked up a jolt of energy from the crowd in the stands and competitors in the infield of the stadium. They all wanted her to finish.
Step by step she inched forward to the finish line. Finally, she was there.
A smile stretched across her face as she wobbled across the finish line. For a moment, she basked in the glow of her triumph. She stumbled, but before she fell to the ground, a proud teammate and an impressed competitor scrambled to hold her up.
As they walked off the track, it took all of Archer’s strength to step over the 1-inch- high rail on the inside of the track.
“I was really woozy,” she admitted. “But I feel proud of myself.”
So was the crowd. It gave her a standing ovation.